Student Newspaper of the College of the Holy Cross

Finals Stress: A Documentation of its Various Inevitable Stages

It’s that time of year again. The month after Easter Break leading up to finals is a long stretch of agony and pain. Papers, exams, presentations, you feel as though there is not nearly enough time to complete everything necessary for each class. This is the time that everyone begins to lose all motivation, and the sunshine and darties become main priorities. De-stressing can be difficult, considering everywhere you turn, another person is complaining about how much they have to do. Personally, when I am stressed to the point that I can no longer function as a normal human being, I simply tend to sleep or shop to avoid work. Sadly, this lifestyle can only be carried out for about two days until you realize how much you have to do, and how little time you have to do it. This is where the mental breakdown stage arises.

The different stages of stress during finals consist of the following :

1) Stage 1: Denial: I don’t have that much work. I’m going to sit in my bed and binge all thirteen episodes of 13 Reasons Why, and then, after that, I’m going to shower, because, after all, you have to stay clean. Then I will take a nice stroll around beautiful Clark Hall, take in the scenery of broken ceiling tiles on the ceilings and a half eaten hotdog in the stone entrance. A nice breeze from the broken windows reminds me it’s nice outside, so, instead of finishing that ten page research paper, I’m going to go out on a Sunday night and pretend that I have everything in my life in order.

2) Stage 2: Anger: This is the time that I realize I do, in fact, have a load of work, and no motivation to do it. This is where the anger sets in, and I start lashing out at librarians and small children on campus alike. Even the golden doodle that lurks on Kimball Quad can sense the anger and frustration that stems from my lack of focus or care.

3) Stage 3: Bargaining: I now begin to ask myself important life questions. If I drop out, how will it affect my future endeavors? Can I become famous for nothing, like Paris Hilton or Kim K? What will happen to me if I take a nice vacation or go to Whiskey more than once this week? These are the real questions.

4) Stage 4: Sadness: This is the point during finals where you realize the tasks that you must complete are crucial to your future success. Sadness kicks in as I sit in my room, watching those who have completed their work, or innately remain in the denial stage, party on Clark Beach. Slowly, I begin studying and writing; however, I am not pleased about it one bit.

5) Stage 5: Acceptance: The stage in which you finally complete set tasks. Accepting death by finals is hard; nevertheless, you will all do well, and summer is on its way. However, if death proves premature for some at spring weekend, you’ll be exempt from finals—which brings us back to the Denial Stage.